Technical Authentication of Original Documents

The quality and the level of security of ID documents can vary greatly.

Travel documents usually have a high level of security with advanced printing techniques and security elements to protect the document from misuse. 

Civil law documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, military documents and education certificates are usually documents that contain few or no security features. Such documents are easier to forge or create fake versions of and pose a particular challenge for document examinations.

The NIDC uses a two-step examination method in the document examinations. First, an examination is carried out to assess the technical construction, materials used and security features of the document. For the technical document examination, photo-analytical techniques and microscopy are used, among others. The technical examination is non-invasive, which means that no samples are taken and no other examinations are carried out that affect the document.

In addition, and where possible, the documents are compared with specimen, which are samples of real documents, as well as reference material from databases that contain information about original documents from around the world.

The technical examination may be sufficient to determine the authenticity of an ID document, but the addition of the tactical evaluation may also help to qualify and nuance the overall assessment of the individual documents.

The NIDC weighs the results of the technical examination and the tactical evaluation and incorporates the results into one document assessment. 

The document assessment is prepared in accordance with the NIDC's conclusion scale, which provides the possibility of stating the degree of certainty with which the center assesses that a document is genuine or false.

The document assessment constitutes the written statement that the NIDC sends to the authority that has requested a document examination of the given document.

Please also see Processing of Personal Data in Relation to Authentication of Travel- and Identity Documents.